2012 Saxum Booker Vineyard Syrah
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Tasting notes
Inky purple. Smoky blackcurrant and blueberry aromas show excellent clarity, with building Asian spice and floral pastille qualities adding complexity. Seamless and sweet in the mouth, offering lively dark berry preserve and candied violet flavors and a bright, spicy kick on the back half. Finishes with supple tannins and lingering floral and blue fruit notes.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
A candidate for the wine of the vintage, the 2012 Booker Vineyard is a blend of 73% Syrah and 27% Mourvedre that was aged 20-26 months in 60% new French oak. It's a classic expression of the vineyard and offers up lots of smoked meats, cracked pepper, wild herbs and tons of dark fruit. Big, full-bodied, thick and chewy, it has gorgeous purity and sweetness of fruit. It shows surprising finesse and elegance with time in the glass, but make no mistake, it's a big, rich and decadent beauty that will benefit from short-term cellaring and age for 15+ years.
The 2012 Booker Vineyard is extremely raw and unformed at this stage. Still on its gross lees, the 2011 is in need of a racking. This site typically delivers big, bold wines. I expect that will be the case here as well, but time will tell. It will be interesting to see how things turn out after bottling.
About the producer
Founded in 2002 by Justin and Heather Smith, Saxum Vineyards is a leading Paso Robles producer of Rhône-inspired wines. Limited to around 8,000 cases annually, the range includes Broken Stones, James Berry Vineyard, Bone Rock and Rocket Block.